The most remarkable thing about this whole trade is the package that the Mets gave up to acquire Santana – OF Carlos Gomez (who should become an exciting player to watch and should find a place very soon at the top of the Minnesota lineup. ) and three pitchers (the most notable – Deolis Guerra – has a high ceiling but is still a ways off from the majors). This package did not include highly touted OF Fernando Martinez (who, if I had to predict, will be in Queens by the end of the summer) or RHP Mike Pelfrey. The only logical explanation is that the Mets had the only viable offer left on the table.
Regardless, I’ll stop fawning until Santana signs his extension, lest I jinx the process. I just wanted to document my excitement.
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge something. The past week has been the most active week in the history of this blog (and, I imagine, my history as a blogger). I wrote the most posts I’ve ever done in a week (four) and easily had the most visits in the last week as well including two of my three highest single day totals (thank you everyone)! I’m taking this as a referrendum that you, dear readers, want me to keep writing a few times a week. I’ve also been adding some new things to play with – I signed up with Feedburner to improve my RSS feed, “claimed” my blog at Technorati, and added options to follow me on Twitter (a minor obsession of mine at the moment – more on that later this week) or subscribe to the blog via e-mail. There’s probably more coming as well.
OK, as for content, I figured that I’d lay this next thing on the line (even if it gets me in trouble with some people). I’m rooting for the Patriots this weekend. While I’ve enjoyed the Giants’ miraculous playoff run (and Eli Manning’s apparent coming-of-age), I’m completely entranced by the chance to see the Pats complete a perfect season. I haven’t followed a team since Steve Young and Jerry Rice left San Francisco (it also coincided with my discovery of punk rock, so sports took the back burner for a while), so I have no particular allegiance to either team. However, the Patriots appear to be a team of destiny, and I’d like to see this fulfilled.
The best argument that I can throw behind the Patriots would be that it’s hard to hate their stars. Tom Brady might be a “pretty boy” (he certainly has a “pretty girlfriend”) but I’m not sure there’s a QB who plays smarter or tougher. Even Randy Moss, who I’ve always found amusing (my favorite fantasy team name of all time was “Straight Cash Homie“), fulfilled his potential this season by becoming the most dominant receiver in the league (and generally likable again – at least until his recent domestic disturbance accusation). However, the man I watched week after week tear apart defenses was the #3 wide receiver Wes Welker. Welker is the kind of football player that all other players should emulate – he gives every ounce of himself on the field every week. Elizabeth Merill wrote an excellent profile of Welker for ESPN.com today where she details his journey from a barely recruited high schooler to leading the league in receptions for an undefeated team. While the Brady-Moss connection was flashier, the Brady-Welker connection tore apart teams piece by piece.
I’ll be looking forward to watching Welker catch a dozen or so passes out of the slot next Sunday. If he gets that many receptions, I’m not sure if the game will even be close.
As I drove around southern/central CT this afternoon searching for wi-fi, I determined that my ideal location would have wi-fi, coffee, and pizza. When I thought this, the next thought in my mind was that these are also qualities I look for in a woman.
Still, hours later, I’m not sure what I meant by this, but it somehow makes sense. Anyway, here’s what I’ve blogged about this week:
One of the most popular (at least with Google) posts in my blog was when I posted Wilco’s appearance on Conan O’Brien when he brought his show to Chicago for a week in May 2006. The espisode re-aired last night, and this morning it reappeared on Youtube.
So here, once again (and once again, probably for a limited time), is Wilco’s performance of (the then unreleased) “The Thanks I Get” on Conan.
So I don’t really have anything new to share in my life (or, to be honest, the time to share it) because this week my students are taking exams and I’m frantically trying to catch up with my correcting. However, I did want to share these videos with you.
2007 was one hell of a year for Leslie Feist – my mom even asked me to put “1 2 3 4″ on her iPod shuffle for her – and it looks like she’s going to ride that momentum right into 2008. Pitchfork had a link to her new video for “I Feel It All,” (perhaps my favorite from her excellent album The Reminder). It’s the same director as her ubiquitous iPod video (Patrick Daughters, who I believe also directed the stunning video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps”) and it’s another video done as one shot. However, instead of synchronized choreography, we have Leslie running around with a giant stick amidst a fireworks display. If that doesn’t entice you to watch, you clearly lack a soul.
Damn, she’s gorgeous.
After the break I have videos of Feist performing the song on a bus on Jimmy Kimmel Live (complete with a classical guitar and a melodica), another live studio performance, and a video of her band playing a nice cover of Broken Social Scene’s “Major Label Debut.” Somewhere out there there’s a teriffic version of “I Feel it All” from Saturday Night Live (where the mutated lyric in the title of this post comes from). If you have a link to it, please let me know.
This past weekend had several highlights – a spontaneous visit to Providence that involved lots of coffee, cardgames, and comedy with friends old and new – but the most blog worthy thing to happen was my acquisition of the Los Campesinos!Sticking Fingers into Sockets EP on cotton candy blue vinyl. I just bought a new turntable online and I’ll be very excited to listen to one of my favorite records of 2007 on it.
For those of you who know me, you won’t be surprised that I like this band so much. They feature some atypical instrumentation (violin, glockenspiel, etc), super catchy melodies, and some impressive production help from Broken Social Scene’s Dave Newfield (in a strange way, they sound like a brattier, British version of BSS). I like this band enough to overlook some of their shtick (copious use of exclamation points, all members sharing a Ramones-esque stage surname of “Campesinos!”) that might prevent me from enjoying a lesser band. Their first full length Hold on Now, Youngster comes out later this year on Arts & Crafts (on 4/1, appropriately) and if it’s anything like the Sticking Fingers into Sockets EP (and its impressive follow up single “The International Tweexcore Underground“) I’ll be raving about that record as much as this one.
After the jump you can find a live video of “You! Me! Dancing!” and the official video for “The International Tweexcore Underground”
Over the last few weeks, I’ve started, revived, and moved several different blogs in hopes of sparking my will to write. So far, it’s working alright; I spent a lot of time setting things up, and now I have to write more often! In the spirit of that, let me tell you about these different ventures and what you can expect to see in each place.
First, I’ve moved my blog for Left of the Dial to it’s own domain: leftofthedialradio.org. All of the past playlists are in both the new location and will remain at the old address, but the new content (which will come when QU’s second semester starts again) will be found at the new address.
Additionally, Mike and I started our own group blog called Make Me Fries (click on the “about” tab for the name’s explanation). We’ll write about stuff (I’m anticipating mostly music and sports) back and forth here. So far, Mike has his favorite albums of 2007 and I’ll write about my thoughts on 2007 soon.
Also, I’ve started a blog called The Appreciator that’s a hybrid of a blog about movies and a “professional” blog about teaching (so far, it’s been about teaching my film appreciation class). The goal of the blog is to inspire two different groups of people: my film students to write their own blogs, and my colleagues to embrace what some call “web 2.0″ tools in the classroom. I’ve written a few things there, and feel free to comment on anything as I’ve been phrasing my posts as questions. Also, I’ve proclaimed my love for Juno in a long post for that blog.
So what does that mean for this blog? I plan on using this blog as my “home base” where I’ll keep you updated as to the other things I’m writing in other places. Also, I’m still going to write things here – probably shorter, less formal posts with links or videos or something.
Posted by Brian 
Posted by Brian 
Posted by Brian 
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